Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-01-29
THE WRECKED SHIP.


after expounding the Scriptures, he
gave out the hymn:
"Slnners turn, why will We die?
God, your Maker, asks YOU why"
The subject of the sermon was
Broken Pieces of the Ship" and the
text, Acts xvii, A:
"Some on broken pieces Of the ship"
DR.. Talmagc spoke as follows:
Never off Goodwin Sands, or the
Skerries, or Cape Hatteras, was n ship
in worse predicament than in the Med
iterranean hurricane, was the grain
ship, on which two hundred and seven
ty-six passengers were driven on the
coast of Malta, five miles from the me-
tropolis of that island, called Citta
Vecchia. After a two weeks tempest
and the ship was entirely disabled and
captain and crew had become com
pletely demoralized, an old missionary
took hold of the vessel. He was small,
crooked backed and sore-oyed, accord
ing to tradition. 1t was Paul, the only
unsecured man aboard. He was no
more afraid of a E%uroclydon tossing
the Mediterranean sea, now up to the
gates of heaven and now sinking it to
the gates of hell, than he was afraid of
Il kitten playing with n string He
ordered them all down to take
their r%ations, first asking Tor
them a blessing. Then
he insured all their lives, telling them
they would be rescued, and, SO far from
losing their heads, they would not lose
so much of their hair as you could cut
oil with one click of the scissors; Y c
not n thread of it, whether it were
gray with age or golden til youth.
"'Thcrc shall not n hair fall from the
head Of any of YOU
Knowing that they can never get to
the desired port, they make the sea on
the fourteenth night black with over
thrown cargo, so that when the ship
strikes it will not strike so heavily. AT
daybreak they saw a creek, and in
their exigency resolved to make for it.
And SO they cut the cables. took in
tbs two paddles that they had on these
old boats, and hoisted the main sail so
that they might come with such force
rs to be driven high up on the beach
by some fortunate billow. There she
goes-tumbling toward the rocks, now
now rolling over the starboard, now Il
wave daShes cleal over the deck and it
seems as if the
OLD CRAFT
has gone forever. But up she comes
again, Paul's arm around n mast, he
cries: ''All is well. God has given
me all those that sail with me- Crash
went the PROV with such force that it
broke off the mast. Crash! went the
/, timbers till the seas rushed through
from side to side to side of the vessel.
$ She parts amidships, and into a thou
| sand fragments the vessel goes, and
f into the waves two hundred and sew
enty-six immortals are precipitated.
: Some of them had been brought up on
. the seashore and had learned to swim,
and with their chin just above the
waves and by stroke of both arms and
propulsion of both feet, they put out
for the beach and reach it. But alas
for those others! They have never
learned to SWIM, or they were wound
ed by the falling of the mast, or the
nervous shock was too great for them.
. And others had been weakened by lone
sea-sickness.
I Oh, what will become of them?
Take that piece of a %rudder," says
Paul to one. Take that fragment OF
q SPAR says Paul to another. Take
that table, Take that image OF
Castor and Pollus." Take that plank
from the life-boat." Take anything
and head for the beach, What a
struggle for life in the breakers. Oh,
the merciless waters, how they sweep
over the heads of men, women and
children Hold on there! Almost
ashore, keep up your courage! Re-
member what Paul told you. There,
the receding wave on the beach leaves
in the sand n whole family. There
crawls up out of the surf the centurion.
There another plank ONE iE with a
life clinging fast to it. There another
piece OF the shattered vessel with its
freightage of IN immortal soul. They
must nv this time all be saved. Yes;
there comcs in las. of all, for hs had
been overseeing the rest, the
OLD MISSIONARY,
who wrings the water from his gray
beard and cries out: THANK God, all
are here!'
Gather them around a fire and call
the roll. Paul builds II fire, and when
the bundles of sticks begin to crackle.
and, standing and sitting around the
blaze, the passengers begin to recover